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Report: VA Engages in Experimental Psychedelic Therapy for PTSD
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has begun offering psychedelic substances to clinical trial patients, according to a recent report in the New York Times.
At least 5 psychedelic trials related to treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are either in progress or soon to launch, according to the Times. Having secured approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Food and Drug Administration, a VA clinic in California began to treat PTSD patients with MDMA last summer. Another trial began in New York in January, and 3 trials at clinics in Portland and San Diego, all of which will use MDMA and synthetic psilocybin, are slated to begin later this year.
Rachel Yehuda, PhD, director of mental health at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New York and a leader of one of the studies, called the launch of the research “a watershed moment.”
In the New York trial led by Dr Yehuda, patients go through an 8-hour session and are offered initial and supplemental doses of MDMA. Patients are monitored by 2 therapists. Dr Yehuda told the Times that in early results from the MDMA trials, patients have shown “what seems to look like remission.”
The California study includes 10 participating combat veterans, who are undergoing 3 MDMA sessions along with psychotherapy. The veterans will be tracked for at least a year, according to the Times report. While the current and planned studies are relatively small, each involving fewer than 100 participating veterans, clinicians tell the Times that the VA health system is an ideal venue to study the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.
“The VA is in some ways the best place for this type of research to happen,” Leslie Morland, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in San Diego, who is studying the possibility that MDMA can enhance couples therapy in marriages strained by PTSD, told the Times. “The VA is going to make sure that we have good data that supports the safety and efficacy before they offer it to veterans, as I think is appropriate.”
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